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Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were...

Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested as scouts decades agoThe Boy Scouts of America has filed for bankruptcy protection in the hope of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan amid hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits..The Chapter 11 filing in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday sets in motion what could be one of the biggest, most complex bankruptcies ever seen. Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested as scouts by scoutmasters or other leaders decades ago but are only now eligible to sue because of recent changes in their states’ statute-of-limitations laws. Continue reading...

Last year, the Boy Scouts of America announced it would change the name of one of...

Last year, the Boy Scouts of America announced it would change the name of one of its branches, the Boy Scouts, to "Scouts BSA" as it started to accept girls.
The decision provoked backlash from some parents of Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts responded with a lawsuit.
But this isn't the first time the Boy Scouts of America has made one of its branches coed, or changed its name.
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When I was 14 years old, I — a girl — joined the Boy Scouts of America.
Specifically, I signed up to be a Sea Scout, one of five scouting programs under the Boy Scouts of America umbrella (Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Exploring, and Venturing are the other four). It's not the branch most people have heard of — at last count, the Sea Scouts' total membership stacked up to less than one-tenth of the number of registered Boy Scouts — but unlike the Boy Scouts, Sea Scouting has allowed women to join and earn the highest ranks in the program since the early 1970s.
Back then, teenage membership in the Boy Scouts was dwindling. According to Ben Jordan, a Christian Brothers University professor who studies modern manhood and the Boy Scouts of America, the organization was losing its appeal with 16-, 17-, and 18-year-olds.
"They didn't necessarily want a completely single-sex environment in scouting, and that and jobs and modern city life is why they were leaving," Jordan told Business Insider's "Brought To You By…" podcast.
So, in an attempt to keep teens off the streets, out of trouble, and suited up in neckerchiefs and badge sashes, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) instituted a number of changes. According to a story published in 1972 by the Associated Press, the Boy Scout Handbook was rewritten "to reflect contemporary life and problems." In addition to teaching boys how to read a compass and start a campfire, the BSA imparted urban scouts with a new set of skills, including "how to treat rat bites as well as snake bites," and how to navigate the subway.
The uniforms were also updated: Scouts traded in their neckerchiefs for "casual open collars," and den mothers supervising Cub Scouts were outfitted in "miniskirts and hot pants," according to the Associated Press.
But the most significant changes were still to come.
In March 1971, the BSA opened one of its branches — Exploring — to girls' membership for the first time ever. At the time, Sea Scouts and Venturing were both part of the Exploring branch.
"The action taken nationally was in recognition of the chartered requirements to serve boys and young men, and it would enable Exploring to more effectively carry out its mandate to meet the needs and interests of today's youth," BSA officials said at the time.
In other words, the change was positioned specifically as beneficial to current and prospective male scouts.
"It may have been keeping boys in," Jordan said. "Like, if we let them have these coed units, will less of them leave?"
According to Jordan, within four years of the change, roughly 20% of Exploring members were girls. Over the course of the following decades, he says that number closed in on 40%.
"So it did seem to work to kind of add another dimension to that program that had always been small," Jordan said.
Meanwhile, parent organization Boy Scouts of America was watching and taking notes. In 1972, it quietly dropped the word "boy" from the name of its most famous branch, the Boy Scouts. Newspaper articles published around this time cited a two-year survey conducted by the BSA which justified the change, saying "youths were being turned off" by the word "boy" in the name of the organization.
Five years later, in 1977, the BSA dropped "boy" from its own name too, unofficially rebranding to "Scouting/USA."
The BSA's national office addressed the change in the New York Times the same year, saying "the word 'boy' is objectionable to minorities, our young adult (male and female) leaders and naturally to the young women enrolled in our coed Exploring program."
However, the BSA did not make any of its other branches coed, and by the late '80s, the word "boy" had slipped back into both "Boy Scouts" and "Boy Scouts of America" without fanfare.
Exploring — and the Sea Scouts, by extension — remained coed and have continued to allow girls to participate for the past four decades. As a result, tens of thousands of young women like me have had the opportunity to learn new skills, practice leadership, and bond with other scouts in a coed environment.
As the Boy Scouts — now called Scouts BSA — takes on the challenge of gender integration in years to come, it might look to the Sea Scouts for inspiration. According to the BSA, more than 70% of Sea Scout ships (the equivalent of troops) now include girls, and they're showing no signs of slowing down.
Julia Press contributed reporting. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: These melons can sell for as much as $22,500 each in Japan